Two Government ministers are calling on Independent TD Noel Grealish to explain why he singled out a particular country in relation to overseas remittances and why he feels this is a cause for suspicion.
Mr Grealish has been accused of racism after he sought reassurances from the Taoiseach yesterday that money sent home by some foreign nationals working in Ireland was not the proceeds of crime.
In the Dáil, the Galway West TD said €3.4 billion [over the past eight years] sent to Nigeria was "astronomical".
Minister Paschal Donohoe says Independent TD Noel Grealish should make clear why he is singling out a particular country in relation to overseas remittances pic.twitter.com/nZl9wB6MsB
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) November 13, 2019
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said that CSO figures indicated that, across many years, the figure has been around €17 million a year.
Mr Donohoe said there are very clear laws in Ireland that look at the issue of remittances, behaviour and flows of money that could be in any way suspicious.
He said he was certainly not aware that there are flows of funding from Ireland to any country that is a cause for criminal investigation at the moment.
The minister said he believed Mr Grealish should make clear why he is singling out a particular country from outside the EU.
Meanwhile, Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy said the question asked by Mr Grealish was "disgusting and potentially dangerous".
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Miriam, Mr Murphy said Deputy Grealish has questions to answer about "what he was trying to do by asking such a question".
He added that he believes that what Deputy Grealish was trying to do was "bigger than just a single question."
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The Central Statistics Office has confirmed that €17m was transferred from workers in Ireland to Nigeria ever year from 2010 to 2017.
The CSO issued a statement this morning following media queries after Mr Grealish's remarks. The statement repeats figures given in a parliamentary reply to Mr Grealish.
The data is based on transfers of money from Irish resident households to non-resident households.
The CSO said the information is based on data from the Revenue Commissioners.
The figures provided by the CSO contrast with statistics referred to in the Dáil by Mr Grealish who said €3.4bn had been transferred to Nigeria over an eight-year period.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told the Dáil remittances from Ireland to Nigeria amount to €17m a year, "which isn't an enormous figure".
He said that the figures cited yesterday are "open to serious scrutiny", and that Mr Grealish was using figures from the World Bank.
"I understand that the World Bank remittance figures for Nigera are estimates provided to the World Bank by the Nigerian authorities and are not actual data," Mr Varadkar said.
"These figures are open to serious scrutiny and we would believe that our statistics are the accurate ones and not the ones of Nigeria."
Earlier, Fine Gael Councillor Yemi Adenuga said the first question she would be asking is what was Deputy Grealish's intention when he made his remarks in the Dáil yesterday.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Miriam, Ms Adenuga, who is originally from Nigeria, said she got the impression he might have an agenda, but what that is "we don't know yet".
The Navan-based councillor said if the intention is to incite people to hate, then he is achieving his aim.
Independent TD Danny Healy-Rae said Mr Grealish was entitled to ask his question, and it was up to him to clarify his remarks as he saw fit.
He said it was wrong of Solidarity-PBP TD Ruth Coppinger to accuse Mr Grealish of being racist.
This evening Independent TD Joan Collins branded the comments made by Mr Grealish as "an absolute disgrace" and "dog-whistle racism."
She said it was "outrageous that people are prepared... to whip up fears."
Ms Collins was speaking in the Dáil on statements regarding the provision of accommodation to applicants for international protection.
Also speaking in the Dáil, Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath said he wanted to "defend" Mr Grealish.
"He is 100% right to ask a question here... We are elected here for that purpose. And the people can be the final arbiter," Mr McGrath said.
The Independent TD said branding Mr Grealish as a racist was "outrageous", adding: "That is an attack on democracy, from the great liberals who tell us they know everything and want everything."
Mr McGrath described yesterday's attacks on Mr Grealish as "bully-boy tactics."
